Good lord, this man is out of control. I don't know even what's more ridiculous anymore, the clothes he wears, or the fact that he gets paid well enough to afford all of this. It's still the latter, right?

Get your head straight guys. LeBron was obviously just giving a shout-out to his mom, after hitting a really long three in a pivotal Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals, to take a 3-2 series lead on the Indiana Pacers. He's definitely not trying to say something vulgar enough to get cut off on live television.

Not siding on any team, but it's pretty cool that Birdman gets to stay in the game with only a flagrant 1 foul, after intentionally knocking Tyler Hansbrough to the floor. Grade A officiating there, whistle dudes.

When a university comes up with a half-baked idea like creating a line of school branded onesie pajamas, the only right way to advertise them is to, of course get the alumni, who was once caught with the possession of marijuana, duh. I mean, it is only fitting. And possibly even more fitting that these things are called Swagga suits, made by the company, SWAG, which is short for Sweat Washington Athletic Gear. Yes, that is their actual name, I am not kidding. (Just like how WSU isn't kidding around with their use of acronyms.)

Coolest. Dude. Ever. Please lord, let the Spurs win this one. There's no way Pop can still dance like that without throwing a hip out, but I would still give anything for the possibility of another dance.

A wise man on TV once told me that "love speaks louder than words," so I just going to let Quincy Pondexter's tweets tell the story of how a simple question on twitter scored him a date with Miss Tennessee.

Who won Miss Tennessee this year?
— Quincy Pondexter (@QuincyPondexter) May 29, 2013

Boom. And that's how you do it, kids. Who knows, maybe someday this first date will blossom into the greatest love story of our generation, and they will one day, get a chance to explain to their kids, the story of how they met. Of course, by that time, twitter probably won't be around anymore. So the kids (assuming they will have multiple children) will have no idea what they are talking about; when you say that Daddy got his first date with Mommy with just three messages on a social platform that only allows a 140 characters per message. The kids won't get it at first, but once they realized their dad could spit hotter fire than five Dylans combined, Quincy will be immortalized and worshiped as a God among men, or at least the coolest dad in the world.

While our favorite video bomber declined to go into detail about his injured right ankle after the game, he did assure us that he was fine and would be ready in time for Game 5. From ESPN:

“It's not [an] issue,” Bosh said. “It's the playoffs. You're going to have ups and downs. It's not about what happens, but it's about how you respond. I'm just going to watch some cartoons, eat some cereal and get ready for Game 5.”

Chris Bosh is right, not just about basketball, but life in general. I can't remember the last time eating cereal and watching cartoons didn't solve my problems. Then again, the last time I did that was when I was in elementary school and the only thing I really worried about was, not waking up early enough to catch the entire Saturday cartoon marathon. Still, he has a point. In fact, I think I am going to do that right now. You know, for Bosh.

This flopping thing is SPIRALING out of control, AMIRITE? Via: Deadspin

"I don't need to flop. I play an aggressive game. I don't flop. I've never been one of those guys." - An actual thing LeBron said in the Chicago Bulls series. It's okay though, he probably forgot, after all LeBron has always been a man of his word. And you, David West, you... I would say something about you, but I am too scared of the possibility that you might track me down and rip my head off (you know, because he is a real assassin), so I am just going to pretend like this never happened.

LeBron can't possibly be a human. I mean, he just sprained his ankle a few possessions ago, and he still managed to pull that block off. There might not any conclusive evidence, but I am pretty sure he is a cyborg.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

I would be mad too if Lionel Hollins puts his super gross fingers on me. I don't blame you, Jerryd Bayless. Yes, you should listen to your coach, but you have to speak up for yourself in the appropriate situation. Nobody wants to be anywhere near those fingers.

Goodness, Manu Ginobili is a genius. He hasn't been all that great in this postseason, (probably because he is just taking it easy on the mortals, before revealing himself as a deity in the battle against a certain cyborg and his pet T-Rex) but he is always good for something ridiculous like this per game.

With Roy Hibbert being 7'2" and all, there's a lot of anatomy to throw the ball at, unfortunately Mario Chalmers had no other choice but to go for the head during his short bit of hang time. Sorry, not sorry?

Friday, May 24, 2013

Ah, the good old number 8, Kobe should have never changed his number. Still not sure why the NBA is making these NBA finals promos for players that didn't even make it past the first round of the playoffs. It's cool, I guess.

Ugh. If you don't mind, can you please excuse me for a minute, while I curl up in my sheets and cringe for the victims above. WHY WON'T IT STOP REPLAYING? Maybe putting up these .gifs weren't such a great idea. STOP ALREADY. I CAN FEEL THE IMPACT. *pukes everywhere*

In spite of Memphis's valiant comeback effort in the second half to force overtime, the hole they dug themselves early into the game was just too big to overcome, as the San Antonio Spurs win 93-89 to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

The Grizzlies were off to a better start in game 2, holding the Spurs to only 18 points in the first quarter, after allowing 31 in their first meeting. Their defense was without a doubt an improvement over whatever it was in game 1. On pick and roll coverage, they switched appropriately, and hedged in small doses (Memphis should never hedge hard in any scenario due to their bigs' lack of athleticism, and inability to move laterally for more than a step). They reduced over-helping on penetration, rotated well for the most part, and thankfully, the Spurs didn't hit a million threes.

Defensive adjustments aside, I am disappointed in Lionel Hollins for making absolutely zero changes to the starting line up and offense until the second half. Don't get me wrong, Tayshaun Prince and Tony Allen are great defenders, but for what they give you on that end of the floor, it is not worth keeping if it means decimating your offense. Especially, Tayshaun, who has completely disappeared in this series, making no impact on either end of the floor. Same could be said for Tony Allen, but with everything he did at the end of this game, I will give him a pass. Still, he should never do anything on offense that requires dribbling.

Playing these together, falls right into San Antonio's game plan and worse, it gives away any space for Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol to work in. The Spurs are more than happy to help off, of the two most offensively plagued Memphis players to double down on the bigger threats. And it is not even just Prince and Allen, the Spurs don't care who is in at the 2 and 3 spot, they are willing to sacrifice open looks, as long as they have Zach and Marc contained in the low post. Hollins has to make San Antonio pay, by playing his more offensively equipped players (Bayless and Poindexter), which he did later, contributing to the second half comeback.

In the second quarter, the Spurs, led by Tony Parker, who finished with 15 points (6-20), 5 rebounds and a career high 18 assists, went on a tremendous run to end the first half with a 15 point lead over their opponents. The Grizzlies, without Mike Conley (18 points (6-14), and 4 assists) due to foul trouble, were out of sync. They reverted back to their old bad defensive habits, and couldn't even buy a single bucket in the quarter, shooting 24 percent from the field. They scored only 1 point (Jerry Bayless's made free throw) in the last 4:44 of the second quarter, getting outscored 31 to 18. The Spurs did most of their damage on the open floor, scoring with ease in transition to take advantage of the slow-footed Memphis team.

But things would take a quick turn in the third quarter, as both teams took turns trading blows, hitting everything in sight. Despite of this, the game still never felt close, even when the Grizzlies cut the lead to 10 to end the third. That is, until the Spurs' 4th quarter collapse.

With the success of the Conley, Bayless, Poindexter, Randolph, and Gasol line-up, the Grizzlies slowly trimmed the lead, while holding their own on defense. Bayless, who was supposedly the defensive burden of the group, stepped up big in the most critical stretch, and scored 18 points on 18 shots off the bench to give the Grizzlies a boost in the shooting department. On the other end, the Spurs went stone cold, shooting 21 percent from the field for only 9 points in all 12 minutes of the quarter. Memphis had 21 points. I don't know if San Antonio was rattled or tired, but when Boris Diaw entered the game for Tim Duncan, who left the game with 5 fouls, they just didn't look like themselves. They made defensive errors and stopped doubling down on Z-BO for short periods and he took advantage, completing a huge and-1 play to cut the lead to 4 with 52 seconds to play. Soon after that, Manu Ginobili turns the ball over, pulls Tony Allen down in mid-air for a flagrant 1 foul, costing his team total of 4 points (Allen's free throws, followed by Mike Conley's game tying floater) and the game was headed to overtime.

There wasn't much to say in overtime, both teams were gassed at this point, and the only well rested player left was Tim Duncan. He went off for 6 of the Spurs' total 8 points in OT, grabbed 2 boards and got a potential game saving block on Gasol to give his team a 2-0 series lead before heading to Memphis for game 3 on Saturday.

A Few Observations:

The Grizzlies have 2 distinct advantages: rebounding and defense. They out-rebounded the Spurs 60 to 46 in this game, the main difference was on the offensive glass, where they won 19 to 4, but Memphis only scored on 4 of those rebounds, that's 8 points on 19 offensive rebounds. They have to make the best out of these opportunities if they want to move on to the next round. On defense, as long as they can be their 'second-best in the league at defending threes in the regular season' selves, they will be okay.

It maybe too late, but Memphis should try a defensive scheme similar to Indiana, where they force every drive into their best defensive player. With the Spurs constantly exploiting Zach Randolph on the pick and roll, it might be wise to do that with Marc Gasol, since he is rarely targeted on those plays.

Kenyon Dooling should not see a minute in this series, at his age, he gives the Grizzlies nothing, and if I am Lionel Hollins, I am not sure if I would be okay with a Dooling and Bayless perimeter line of defense.

Last thing, I would love Ed Davis to play Darrell Arthur's minutes. Between the two, Ed is arguably the better offensive player (Darrell hasn't been the same since his injury), and is definitely more physically gifted to defend against the smaller Spurs line up. Ed's length and speed would be a huge improvement over Darrell in any pick and roll situations.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Yea, it spells mautre instead of mature in the last bit. Oopsie. Just don't do a Google search for "mautre," it is not actually a word and you may or may not regret the search results. If you are at work, I definitely suggest against it.

Had the Grizzlies scored on one of their 7 attempts, they would have only finished with 3 points (including Jerryd Bayless's made free throw) in the last 4:44 of the second quarter. They shot 24 percent from the field in that quarter, and 26 percent for the half. Yea, it was bad.

Poor dude, never would he have thought that he would be sharing his prom date on the biggest night of his life. The worst part is, even if Dwyane Wade only stayed for one dance, it is more than enough to take away the mind his date for the rest of the night. You know he is not getting anything but a sympathy kiss on the cheek at the end of the dance. Stay strong, my man.

Friday, May 17, 2013

I think we all remember the legendary crossover that marked the start of Allen Iverson's ground breaking NBA career, because according to Bow Wow, it sure doesn't seem like Michael Jordan has forgotten. (For those of you that maybe younger or have just started to follow NBA basketball, Allen Iverson crossed up Michael Jordan in 1997, his rookie year.)

(Bow Wow) I’m actually real cool with his sons, Marcus and Jeffrey…I would say, we kinda grew up together. Being on tour, every time we came to Chicago, even at the age of like 15, they would come around and we just clicked.

There’d be times I stayed over at the family, ya know, Mr. Jordan’s house…actually a funny story, I actually wore some Iverson’s to their house…and Michael Jordan woke us all up and was like ‘Whose is these?’…and I was like ‘they’re mine’…and I never saw My A.I.’s after that moment. I was in some Jordan’s going down to play some basketball.

To be fair, Bow Wow kind of deserved it for wearing Allen Iverson's jersey through out "Like Mike," while schooling dudes in his magical Michael Jordan sneakers. And probably also for making me think he was the coolest dude in early 2000's. (Don't give me that look. Mind you, I was still in elementary school at that time. It was a very normal thing.)

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Man, I don't know who is in charge of the animations, but whoever you are, these are amazing. Oh, the story is cool too, even if Jalen Rose stretched the truth a little. He was actually ejected with 4 minutes remaining in the game with 27 points. He also forgot to mention that his team ended up losing by 20 points.

Pssshhh, I can do better than that .....on my regular size, 8 foot nerf hoop. Okay, even that is a little bit of a stretch for me, but there is no good reason for ESPN to not do a sport science breakdown of my off-the-wall-360-between-the-legs dunk. I got hops for days, dudes.

How dare you enter the mouth of the beast with an offensive move that came from the continent of his origin? Silly Americans. (It's funny, because I am Canadian, but not really, considering the amount of Canadian talent produced. Please save us from this hockey hole, Andrew Wiggins. Our desperation is at an all time high.)

Tony Allen was just trying to be a gentleman by throwing the metaphorical towel (in this case, shirt) for the Thunder. It just happened to be during a Derek Fisher three that ended up costing Memphis 4 points (Derek's 3 + technical shot). Super weird call.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

As much as I would like to applaud the detail of the baby's paint-on tattoos, this is not right. Seriously, parents? I want to know what part of this is a great idea. I mean I once dressed up as Green Goblin because my parents could not afford the Spiderman costume, but this is a little extreme.

Metta World Peace doesn't have much to do nowadays, with the Lakers being out of the playoffs and everything, so he has been spending most of his time on twitter, entertaining us with rather interesting analogies during games. I wish could just copy and paste his entire timeline on here, but that could potentially cause an overload, so instead, I did you guys the favor of grabbing the best bits. Enjoy.

Knicks are trying to find themselves on the go. Kinda like take out food or a drive thru. They can't find the ketchup. >>>>>
— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace) May 15, 2013

The Knicks burger is not complete. Once they find the ketchup and put it on the burger , they will eat. Food chemistry equals team chemistry
— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace) May 15, 2013

They have all the pieces for a perfect Cheese burger. Indiana is making their burger work. They have no ketchup at all and still winning!
— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace) May 15, 2013

Knicks got the ketchup,just can't find it. It's gonna be too late when they finally find the ketchup because jerseys will be Half price off
— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace) May 15, 2013

I love how Chandler and Martin guard the screens. Championship style coverage.They just have 2 find the ketchup."Mom,where the damn ketchup"
— Metta World Peace (@MettaWorldPeace) May 15, 2013

As insane as he sounds, Metta has a point. Ketchup is a vital part of your cheeseburger, without it, you are left with a dry piece of meat. So, what does it actually have to do with the Knicks and Pacers? I am not exactly sure. The Pacers are obviously the better team, with or without ketchup. Oh well, let's just hope Metta keeps things weird on twitter.

T-MAC IS BACK, YOU GUYS. It's no 13 in 33, but one assist from a classic T-Mac clear out (still drawing defenses like his younger self) and a chase-down block in 26 seconds, finishing with a total of 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 blocks in 4 minutes of play, I don't know if there is a player with better fantasy value on the market right now.

Seriously? First, the flower jacket and now you won't even put on pants that will cover up your legs? No wonder your knee won't heal, how is it suppose to, when you wear pants that cut off blood flow to your lower limbs. Look, Dwyane, I am sure you are a nice guy and has a lot of friends, but whoever let you out of the house in whatever that is, needs to be out of your life (and fav 5). Permanently.

Considering how good Nick Collison was last night against the Grizzlies, I highly doubt Memphis hired a sniper to take down Kendrick Perkins, because the real target is little bit more to the right. Which leaves his teammates as the only possible remaining suspects. Scott Brooks's loyalty to his veterans might have cost the Thunder a few games, but you guys didn't have to shoot him, even if it is a great salary move for the future.

He missed the shot, but anytime a 65 year old breaks a set of 20 year old ankles, it's a highlight to me. That and of course, it was MANU GINOBILI. Anything good that involves Manu is a highlight. (This series is totally not helping in terms of justifying my unhealthy love for him. I miss you, long hair Manu.)